Construction is underway to improve Max Green service in north Calgary, and while it’s welcome news, one area councillor says more is needed.

Starting this fall, there are improvements being done in the 78 Avenue NE bus loop and operator break space, along with upgrades to the break space at the North Pointe Transit Terminal next to Country Village Way NE.

That work will lead into a series of new bus-only lanes, along with extensions of the segregated lanes to help improve bus flow along the Centre Street North corridor. Construction will begin in 2027.

“From downtown to 160 Avenue North, these upgrades help you spend less time in traffic, count on your trip and move through the city more easily,” reads the Max Green improvements project page.

In 2027, a new bus-only lane will be installed between 28 Avenue and 38 Avenue NE, and a longer section will be added between 42 and 43 Avenues. There will be changes at McKnight Boulevard to extend the bus-only lane to 54 Avenue to allow for freer flow for buses in the area.

There will be bus lane upgrades near Beddington Trail from the bus gates, and an extended bus-only lane from Country Hills Blvd to Panatella Boulevard, along with a new left-turn lane into North Pointe Terminal is expected to improve bus traffic flow into the area.

The total cost of these improvements is $20 million.

Ward 3 Coun. Andrew Yule said he’s happy to see ongoing work happening in the area, but the current work is year six of a 10-year plan that began slowly after the original Green Line project was approved – cutting back LRT service to the north and instead putting money towards bus-rapid-transit improvements.

“Green Line was really out of our hands in the fact that the funding envelope continues to shrink and if we didn’t if we didn’t make that decision that we made, it was going to get smaller and smaller as we waited,” Yule said.

Accelerating Max Green improvements

Yule said his amendment to look at a bigger boost to Max Green enhancements will come back with a price tag at the Nov. 3 Executive Committee meeting.

The approved Green Line plan will end a surface-level LRT just before 2 Street SW, without a specific plan to head north to cross the Bow into north Calgary.

With no tunnel, and no specific cost for the connection to the north, Yule said one of the big challenges will be figuring out how to create a terminal in the downtown to connect Calgary’s northern and southern halves.

“We’ve been slowly chipping away at North Central BRT with the Max Green, but we can’t continue to slow play this. We got to amplify the schedule,” he said.

He’s hoping for urgency from the provincial and federal governments to push these projects further, faster.

“I campaigned on … making Max better, making our lives better for transit, and all it’s been is kind of realizing how far behind we are on getting the equipment we need for the onslaught of transit needs in North Central Calgary, and making a primary network that actually makes sense,” he said.  

“All the decisions that we’ve made so far, well, that that the city’s made so far to utilize Max Green as a primary transit network without the dedicated lanes has not been received well in my area.”

The added bus only lanes will help shift that perception, but until north Calgary residents see transit as a more convenient alternative to driving down Centre Street, little will change, according to Yule.  That’s going to take more than just extra lanes and signalling, that’s going to take more buses and more dedicated infrastructure, Yule said.

“It’s really a matter of we need people sitting in their cars on Center Street watching the Max Green zoom by them and have them realize that the service has really gotten better and I should start taking it more often,” he said.  

“We need that. We need that frequency up Center Street so that it is reliable.”